Sazerac affiliate wins $20 million bid for failed Kentucky distillery

Tom Collins Distilling, an affiliate of Sazerac, has agreed to buy the former Garrard County Distilling property in Lancaster, Ky., after winning a $20 million bid at a court-ordered auction on June 26, according to court records and a company statement confirmed Monday.

Sazerac said it was the successful bidder in the auction process for Garrard County Distilling, but added that the transaction is still subject to customary closing steps. The company did not provide details about its plans for the site.

The sale follows the collapse of a bourbon project that had opened with large ambitions only a short time earlier. Garrard County Distilling began production in January 2024 and was described as the largest independently owned bourbon distillery in Kentucky. The 210-acre property sits about 30 minutes from Lexington. Production stopped in April 2025, and the business entered receivership after Truist Bank sued over debt reported at about $26 million.

That debt reportedly included unpaid property taxes, loans and millions of dollars in liens. Court records show that Tom Collins Distilling became the distillery’s primary creditor after acquiring the property’s associated debt in March. Those records also indicate that Tom Collins held a judgment against the distillery before the auction took place.

The auction was held as a master commissioner sale in Garrard County. The property had reportedly been appraised at more than $27.9 million, meaning the winning bid came in well below that figure. According to the Garrard County Justice Center, Tom Collins Distilling was the only bidder for the lot.

The purchase gives Sazerac a closed bourbon facility in Kentucky at a time when major spirits companies are weighing how much production capacity they may need in coming years. If the site is restarted, it could restore dormant whiskey-making capacity and add to consolidation in American distilling, especially as larger groups continue to look for assets that can be brought online faster than building new plants from scratch.

For Garrard County, the sale could also ease a long period of uncertainty around one of the area’s biggest industrial projects. Diane Bisher, executive director of the Garrard County Chamber of Commerce, told Lex News that the vacant distillery had “torn” county leaders and local institutions “apart for the past year” as officials waited for an outcome.

Michael Gaffney, the mayor of Lancaster, also told Lex News that he believed the project could succeed under new ownership. He said it was important for the community to get the distillery operating again.

The deal adds another point of attention around Sazerac, one of the largest privately held spirits companies in the United States and owner of Buffalo Trace. Earlier this year, reports said Sazerac had made a $15 billion bid for Brown-Forman, the owner of Jack Daniel’s. Brown-Forman rejected that offer in May.

No timeline has been announced for closing the Garrard County transaction or for any possible reopening of production at the site. For now, the acquisition marks a new turn for a distillery that moved from launch to shutdown in little more than a year and now enters the orbit of one of Kentucky bourbon’s biggest players.